TweetDeck: Manage Your Social Web Presence

TweetDeck is a great tool to manage your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) all in one place. This service allows you to set up your account (it's free!) so each account's activity shows in your dashboard. It's a great way to stay on top of your social presence across all platforms and allows you the ease to post to multiple accounts at once. There is even a scheduling option so you can push out messages at a later date.You can download a desktop version (this is what I use) or they also have apps for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android.

My creativity comes in bursts at times. The scheduling tool allows me to put several thoughts together at once, but to schedule them to 'drip' out to my customers in a more digestable way. You could also use this tool for scheduling updates while you're on vacation. You can do a week all at once and schedule it to post daily. What a great organizational tool!

Ideas for social media updates
Scheduling updates is a great way to get in the habit of creating content regularly. You know more about your business than anyone else. Here's some quick idea-generating thoughts for you to develop into content for your customers/visitors.

• Share some of your knowledge. It might be familiar and seemingly unimportant to you, but it could be just what they want to know.
• Think of things you find valuable and see if you can share this with them in a creative way that helps them 'do life' better.
• Life is busy. Can you make it easier?
• What can you do to deliver more than is expected? 
• Don't be afraid to share personal tidbits about yourself. After all, business is really about relationships. We buy from people not businesses.

Did you notice I never gave you any ideas about promoting sales or special offers? While this can be a valuable space to share your next sale or coupon, these social areas are more about building relationships instead of selling.

Think about this - if you always have a sale or special offer, you condition your customers to NEVER buy anything at retail price! Essentially, you dilute your retail price and people feel no sense of urgency to buy something until it goes on sale or until they can get it cheaper at a later date. Therefore, the appeal of a "sale" or "coupon" has little meaning if it's come to be expected.

How are you using social media? Have you done something with success you can share? Please tell me by leaving a comment below...it may just spark a good idea for someone else!

Keeping it real for local small businesses,
Paula

Card Readers That Plug Into Smartphones

Remember my last post where I told you that the "e" in eCommerce stands for "everywhere"?! Believe it baby.

I saw this a couple of weeks ago on one of the morning shows. Small merchants can use their smartphones to take credit cards when they are selling away from their business.

For local businesses, think Farmers' Market, trade shows, conferences, business expos, etc. If you have your smartphone and this card reader, the possibilities for sales are limitless. Cool! eCommerce everywhere! I love it!!

Think small business and shop local... :P
Ciao, Paula

Read the full article for more details at BusinessWeek.com:
The iPhone as a Cash Register

UPDATE to the post above: Here are a couple of links to some additional information on the providers of these card readers.
Intuit's GoPayment
If you use Inuit's Quickbooks, these mobile payments can tie directly back to your accounting. Watch this video for specifics: Andrew Freed on Intuit's GoPayment
Square's Card Reader
Verifone's Hand-Held Readers

3 Take-Aways from Internet Retailer Conference

I'm just home from the Internet Retailer Web Design & Usability Conference in Orlando, FL. [BTW - not a bad place to be for a couple of days in February!]

Thought I'd share a few tips I came away with after listening to a couple of days of speakers, visiting with vendors and networking with other eRetailers. I compiled these while listening to Rich Ruggiero, Resource Interactive wrap up our conference.

3 Main Take-Aways:

[If you don't want to read this whole post, scroll to bottom and watch the 2:59 video summary. :-) ]

1. Usability is a given - Usability=how easily can customers use your site and complete the action you'd like.

  * The future is now!

  * Expand your Web presence by integrating social and video tools that work for your business.

  * Make your site user-friendly for the rapid adoption and use of all types of devices - smartphones, tablets, notebooks, Internet on T.V. - everything that is portable and not a desktop computer

2. Keep an eye on what's coming - (i.e., trends, strategies, emerging media, etc.)
  *  Do your homework

      What do your customers want? What are their expectations while they are on your site? (not what you expect them to do, what THEY expect to accomplish while there and HOW they expect to do it)

      What is your competition doing? Can you get some ideas for your site? Can you match some of the usability expectations from the big box stores?

3. Evolve - Continually evolve your site to meet your customer's needs

  * eCommerce  - the "e" stands for everywhere! Every place is a point of sale! Be nimble with a customer-centric focus and find continuing ways to improve your sales process.

Here's a video from Resource Interactive (2:59) that really sums it all up!

Creating a Custom Look for Your Facebook Page

I've played around a bit with an application for Facebook that allows you to customize your business page on Facebook. I came across this thorough article from John Jantsch at DuctTapeMarketing that walks you through how to do it.

It's nice to be able to differentiate your business from all the usual Facebook chatter and even have a Welcome page as your default page. Check out John's article here to see if this is right for you: Adding Custom Content to Facebook Pages

Analyzing Your Web Site Traffic with Google Analytics

As a small business, I know you probably have many more things to do besides look at a bunch of analytical data about your Web site. But you really should be using some sort of Web traffic data gathering system that can give you a quick look at who's visiting your site, where they are coming from, what they are doing while on your site, and so on.

I love to use Google Analytics for my own sites and that of my clients. It's free to set up, can provide a wealth of information and the reports are pretty easy to use/navigate. If you get really good at using it, you can even track traffic through your sales funnel.

It's pretty interesting to see what's going on as people move through the stages of purchasing something from you online. It sure can open your eyes as to where there might be trouble in the process because you can see what percent of people finish, and if they don't, where they left the process.
Beyond the details of tracking your sales, you can see this additional data:

• Geographical data;
• What type of browser visitors use;
• Whether they access your site through a PC or mobile device;
• How much time they spent on your site;
• New visitors vs. repeat visitors;
• Which search engines sent traffic;
• Which keywords triggered a visit; and
• Which pages of your site were viewed.

Sound intriguing? Sign up for your free account today and get started! Click here: Google Analytics

For some extra help, here's a video overview of the Google Analytics' interface (8 min)

 Or watch this Intro to Google Analytics video (47 min.)

Ciao for now, Paula